


Surprising Too Late

by thatcrazywriterley



Series: The Too Late Tales [34]
Category: AEW, All Elite Wrestling, Being The Elite (Web Series), Young Bucks--Fandom
Genre: Art, Matt and Nick make a surprise, Multi, Polyamorous Relationships, Polyamory, brothers share a wife, family gifts, surprise birthday, the kids make breakfast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:35:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26606836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatcrazywriterley/pseuds/thatcrazywriterley
Summary: Birthdays come and go, and the Jacksons take joy in surprising each other with grand gifts.
Relationships: Matt Jackson/Reader, Matt Jackson/Reader/Nick Jackson, Nick Jackson/Reader
Series: The Too Late Tales [34]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1695274
Kudos: 10





	1. Part 1: Reader's Birthday

Part 1

_(GIF owned by cowboyshit on Tumblr)_

_Nick_

“Matt, hand me that shelf.” My brother and I were practically dripping in sweat as we helped our dad put in a partition wall in the garage that had once been our home gym. It still was, technically, but we’d moved some of the pieces around to make room for a new purpose.

Y/N’s birthday was in a week, and we had a surprise for her. When we’d met almost nineteen years ago— _God, had it been that long_ —she’d been an art student. There were so many times when she’d beg the two of us to sit for sketches. I remembered the first time she showed me one of her paintings. It was a breathtakingly beautiful self-portrait. She’d given it to me as a present on our first anniversary. But in the years that followed that gift, our wife spent less and less time chasing her joy of art. It was as if the moment that Mattie was born, Y/N set aside everything except for our newborn daughter and us.

“Is that going to be big enough?” he replied, holding out a piece of varnished and polished wood.

Our dad poked his head around the corner. He was working outside, making sure that the window AC unit was sealed. “What are you putting on it?”

I pointed to a spread of jars filled with a variety of paintbrushes and tubes of acrylic paint along with a bento box Kenny had given her where she kept her chalk. Dad looked between the objects and the shelf in Matt’s hands before he nodded.

“Yeah, just tack an extra screw at the back of the bracket top and bottom.”

I grinned and dug into my pocket for two more screws. “This is going _so much_ better than the swing set.”

Dad practically cackled. “You two helped me build your ring when you were teenagers. How you couldn’t follow some simple instructions is beyond me.”

“To be fair,” Matt said as he passed over the electric screwdriver and the level. “We were stubborn.”

“You were showing off,” Dad called back.

“True,” I snorted. “Matt, hold this down.”

_Matt_

It was hard to keep a straight face in the days leading up to Y/N’s birthday. We spent those final days in a panic. We ended up having to be in Jacksonville an extra day for a taping, and we ended up making panicked calls to our dad to get some final hardware stuff handled. From Friday to Saturday night, I don’t think either my brother or I slept more than a few hours. We took turns keeping our wife occupied while the other slipped away to the other house with the kids or to the garage to hang shelves or photos or art.

I spent Saturday night—the night before her birthday—going through boxes of drawings the kids had done over the years. Nick had gone out that morning and picked up a dozen picture frames. I picked out two drawings from each of the kids and tucked them carefully into a frame to hang on the wall or sit out on the tables in the space we’d made for her.

Nick had crept into her charcoal pencils and sketched the outline of the Tokyo Dome. It had taken a while, but the story of that first time he’d kissed her came out in the early days of our life together. It was a moment I didn’t begrudge them and I memory I hoped they kept with them forever.

I’d spent hours trying to figure out what my addition would be. After a while, I decided to do my best to replicate that moment when our lives together really began. I went through my iCloud and pulled up the photos from our honeymoon. There was half a dozen of that day on the coast where Nick and Y/N had exchanged their rings. It took three tries, but I finally produced something that looked like the lighthouse on the edge of Oahu.

It was the early hours of the morning of Y/N’s birthday when I finally slipped back into the house, bleary eyed and exhausted. Nick stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, and chugging a bottle of water.

“Everything’s ready,” I said around a yawn. I thought about making a cup of coffee. “Is she still asleep?”

“Everybody is. RJ was having nightmares, so I slept most of the night in his room.” My brother smiled a little. “Go get in bed. I’ll be there as soon as I check on little man.”

I reached out and hugged him. “Thanks, Nick. For everything you’ve done all these years.”

Nick locked his arms around me and squeezed me hard. “Thank you for letting me be here. For taking me back.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I wasn’t going to cry. “You and Y/N are the most important people in my life. And this life is the one for us, no matter what anyone says.”

I padded down the hallway to the master bedroom. Y/N was curled beneath the blankets in the center of the king-sized bed. For a moment, I stood there watching her sleeping. I remembered the first time I saw her, the first time I kissed her. My wife was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t believe that I’d been lucky enough to have the last almost twenty years with her.

She snuggled close to me when I slipped into bed beside her. She pressed her lips against my cheek and tucked herself under my arm. Her head pillowed on my chest. I kissed the top of her head and closed my eyes.

Sometime later, Nick crawled into bed on her other side. He curled up behind her, his arm tucked around her waist. Together—just like we faced everything else in life—we went to sleep.

***

I woke up to a faint knocking. Sleep fell away slowly. I was warm and comfortable snuggled between Matt and Nick. They were both sound asleep, made evident by Nick’s slightly open mouth and Matt’s soft snores.

The knock came again. I sighed and sat up, crawling down to the end of the bed to avoid waking either of them. Rubbing my eyes to wake up, I opened the bedroom door to find my sixteen-year-old daughter.

“Happy birthday, Mom,” she said with a grin. “We made breakfast for you and Dad and Papa.”

I smiled, tears in my eyes. “I think Dad and Papa are out of it for a while. But we’ll save them a plate.”

She led the way to the kitchen where thirteen-year-old Nicole was piling eggs on the plates of her brothers. Ten-year-old Lee was carefully pouring orange juice into a line of cups. He turned and gave me a smile that looked exactly like Matt’s.

“Morning, Mama! Happy birthday!” he said as he carried one cup at a time to the table. He handed six-year-old Ty his favorite cup, earning a wide grin from his youngest brother.

The kids pulled me toward the table and tucked me into my normal place between Mattie and Nicole. The boys lined up on the other side of the table. Seats at the head and foot were empty, waiting for Matt and Nick to join us.

Mattie looked around the table and frowned. She stood up and practically stalked down the hallway back to the master bedroom. I hid my laughter behind my hand as I heard her pounding on the door, yelling for her Dad and Papa to _get up right now you’re ruining Mom’s birthday breakfast!_

Ty grinned, his smile pushing into his cheeks, and giggled. “Mattie’s yelling at them!”

RJ looked over at his baby brother and nodded. “Serves them right. It’s Mama’s birthday.”

My heart swelled at the sweetness from my sons. Lee looked after his sister and scrambled from his seat to run to join Mattie. He stood next to her, pounding his fist on the door in time with hers.

“We’re coming, we’re coming,” Nick growled playfully as he swung open the door. I saw him grin at our eldest daughter before he leaned over, picked her up, and threw her over his shoulder. “Do you think we’d miss your mother’s birthday breakfast?”

Matt appeared right behind him, swinging Lee up onto his back. “We were up late getting Mama’s present ready.”

“Present?” I asked, arching my brows. I followed their movement as they carried our eldest son and daughter back into the kitchen. They deposited them in their seats, slipped around to press a tandem kiss on my cheeks, and smiled as they sank into their seats.

“Who made this?” Matt asked, looking down at the plate in front of him.

“Nikki,” Ty said proudly. She was his favorite, and he loved everything that she did.

Matt’s brow lifted as he beamed at her. She blushed and looked away. “It looks amazing, Bug,” he said before taking a bite. “You cook like your mother.”

Nicole glanced up at me, pride on her face. I kissed the top of her head. “You can help me make Thanksgiving dinner this year,” I whispered.

***

After breakfast, Matt and Nick tied an Elite bandana around my eyes. Then they took me by the hands and led me through the house. I could hear the children following along, whispering and giggling at each other. I looked around, trying to get an idea of what was happening, particularly when we left the house for the late September sunshine.

Nick talked quietly as he guided me over the uneven bumps and dips. I followed a map of our property in my head as I tried to figure out where they were taking me.

“Okay,” Matt said from my left. “Mattie, you got the camera?”

“Yep,” I heard her reply.

The bandana fell away, and I squinted in the bright light. We stood outside the garage that the boys had converted into a home gym when they bought their homes next to each other. I stared at the door, not sure what was happening.

Nick stepped in front of me, his hand on the doorknob, and grinned. “You’ve given up so much for us, Y/N. Your passions and your hobbies. It’s time you got those back.”

The kids filed in behind Nick, Mattie walking backward to keep her cell phone trained on me. Matt pushed me forward with his palm on the base of my spine. The moment I stepped over the threshold, I started to cry. The space was no longer a gym. Somehow, the boys had created a whole new room. It was painted a soft heather grey and stocked with every art supply I owned. My bento box with my chalks. Mason jars of brushes and acrylic. An easel and canvases of every size. Parchment paper. Everything I could ever want or need to draw, sketch, or paint.

The walls were hung with frames of every size and shape. Some held pictures the kids had drawn over the years, signed at the bottom with their names and ages. Two of them were clearly by Matt and Nick. A rough black and white sketch of the curving roof of the Tokyo Dome. Another carefully drawn outline of a lighthouse along a coast.

A palette had been turned into a photo frame—I suspected Brandon’s wife had something to do with it. It was splashed with bright colors, and circular holes had been cut into the wood. A picture of each of my children had been placed inside. A larger oval had a picture of the three of us at the wedding, the two of them standing in their suits on either side of me. A photo we were desperately grateful for after the fact.

I turned around in circles, one after the other, trying to take in everything. My heart pounded in my chest and the tears poured down my cheeks. Mattie followed my every move with the camera, her hands shaking as she cried, too. Nicole sniffled.

“Do you like it?” Matt asked softly.

Nick leaned his chin on his brother’s shoulder. The two of them watched me apprehensively, almost terrified.

“I love it. So much,” I whispered, trying to take a breath. “You… you did this… It’s beautiful. It’s perfect.”

A moment later, I was wrapped up in their arms. “We love you,” Nick whispered in my ear as Matt cradled my head in his hand. “Happy birthday, Sunshine.”


	2. Part 2: Matt's Birthday

Part II

_(GIF owned by canaryscrys on Tumblr)_

I tucked two-year-old Lee down for a nap and kissed his dark hair. He shuffled beneath his blanket and sucked his thumb. It was a habit we were trying to break, but it was taking longer than we expected. For the moment, I’d let him get away with it. I straightened up, kneading my fist into the base of my spine. Baby number three was sitting low and heavy, just weeks away from coming into the world.

I was hoping he’d come sooner rather than later. But it would be what it would be.

After I slipped out of the bedroom, I walked down the hallway into Nick’s office. It had been made off limits to the kids and Matt for the next week. I knocked three times in the rhythm we’d planned.

Nick poked his head out the door, looking around to make sure that I was alone. I rolled my eyes, grinning as he opened the door just enough for me to sneak inside. He quickly snapped the door shut behind me as I looked around the room. The furniture had been moved to make way for a beautifully distressed wooden armoire.

“Lee’s asleep. Matt and the girls will be back around nine,” I said as I pulled the doors of the armoire open. “If you can grab the fan and hair dryer, we can get this done and put in his kitchen before they get back.”

Nick smiled as he crossed toward me. He took me into his arms and kissed the tip of my nose. He glanced down at my swollen belly. “We’ve got time. I don’t want you around paint fumes for too long, Sunshine.”

“Matt’s birthday is tomorrow, Nick,” I whined. “I want to have it for him on time.”

My husband let his head fall back, a heavy sigh slipping past his lips. I could imagine that he was rolling his eyes. But I knew that he was grinning, even if he didn’t want to. I leaned forward, pressing my forehead against the center of his chest and settled my hands against the curve of his ribs.

“Please?” I asked quietly, knowing that it was unfair.

_Nick_

Y/N knew exactly how to get what she wanted out of me. I didn’t begrudge her the knowledge, especially since she didn’t stoop to that very often. Sighing, I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and smiled.

“You’ll be the death of me,” I teased quietly before I released her. She blushed, and my heart kicked into overdrive. “But it’ll be a sweet way to go.”

She smiled and danced past me toward the armoire. With the help of YouTube and some DIY How-To guides, I’d changed out the drawers and put new handles on every drawer and door. I’d stained and sealed it and had everything ready to put inside.

“See,” Y/N said, gesturing to everything I’d already done. “It’s almost finished already. Just the last few touches are left.”

I grinned and spread my palm over her lower back. My thumb dug into the spot just above her hips that I knew ached her. My wife was beautiful in ways that I couldn’t describe. She had her hair pulled back into a lose braid, her eyes were bright and wide with excitement. It made me think of that weekend so long ago when the two of us had planned a surprise part for Matt’s birthday. Even then, I’d been willing to do anything to make her smile.

“Do we still have that felt board from Matt’s birthday?” I asked suddenly. “You know the one where…”

Y/N beamed, and I hoped she was thinking about that weekend, too. “We do, but it’s in in Mattie’s room. She claimed it when she found it in my art supplies.”

“Well damn,” I replied, watching as she rummaged around in a clear plastic tub. It was everything that was left of her art career. That tub held the supplies that turned an empty bedroom into a fairytale forest or an ocean paradise.

“Did you do the measurements for the coffee maker?”

I rolled my eyes dramatically. “Of course I did. I’ve got everything ready for when you finish the artsy stuff.”

She glanced over at me and grinned. My heart skipped a beat. Even now, after eight years together, she could still tie my guts in knots.

***

Nick and I worked in companionable silence. I stenciled words on the outside of the doors with chalkboard paint while Nick hung a set of hooks on the back wall of the armoire. Then he put in the cubby shelf while I made the labels for the drawers from chalkboard strips. I glued them on while he checked on Matt, making sure that we had plenty of time to get finished.

Lee woke up after an hour. He rubbed his eyes with his fists as I sat on the edge of his bed. He lay there for a few moments almost as if he would go back to sleep, but then he turned his gaze toward me and grinned.

“When brudder here?” he asked quietly, eyes on my very round belly.

I smiled back and brushed his hair out of his face. “Very soon. A few more weeks. And then the baby will be here.”

He sat up in the bed and looked around his room, all done up to look like the house from Blue’s Clues. Little blue pawprints popped up here and there. Blue herself was painted to look like she was standing on the top of his toy cabinet. I wondered what we would do with it as he grew up—would it be dinosaurs or racecars or football or Hogwarts. Maybe it would be something I couldn’t think of just yet, but I’d paint it for him when the time came.

“Hep,” Lee said as he wiggled to the edge of the bed and sat up. The set of his jaw made him look exactly like Matt in a way that made my heart climb into my throat.

“Okay,” I whispered back. “But you have to be very quiet, and when Papa gets home, you can’t tell him anything.”

Lee giggled and popped his hand over his mouth, pressing down to show that he would be quiet. I kissed his forehead and stood up, reaching for his hand. He hopped carefully down from the bed and followed me back down the hall to Nick’s office. By the time we walked in, Nick had already drilled the holes that made way for the string of white lights that would illuminate the cabinet and the one that would let the power cord for other things snake out the back without being seen. Once everything was put inside, it was going to look perfect.

“Hey, little man,” Nick said, his face splitting into a beautiful grin. He wiped his hands off on his worn sweatpants and then swung Lee up into the air. Lee squealed and giggled as Nick peppered loud comedic kisses on his cheek. “Did you have a good nap?”

“Uh huh. Momma say I hep.” He pointed to the cabinet with one hand, the other occupied as he chewed on the ends of his fingers. Drool slipped down his chin onto his shirt.

Nick glanced back at me. I didn’t know how, but his smile got brighter. His blue eyes were so happy, so content that it knocked the breath out of me. No matter how long I lived, or how long I got to say that he was mine, I would never get over the way that he made me feel.

“Well, you know the rules, little man. Momma’s word is law around here. Isn’t it?” He tickled Lee’s tummy as the two of them looked at each other.

“Uh huh. Momma wuz.”

My husband grinned, laughing. “Yes, Momma rules.”

***

We were cutting it close getting the armoire installed at Matt’s house. It was too heavy for Nick to move himself, and there was no way that he was going to let me help—though I couldn’t have if I’d wanted to—so he called Brandon to come from next door. Between the two of them, they hefted it from Nick’s office, through the house, across the patio, and then into Matt’s kitchen. I’m sure they were frustrated with how many times I asked them to move it until I was sure it was in the perfect spot. I thanked Brandon profusely and promised to send Nick with some of my cranberry apple cinnamon muffins in the morning. He hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, and said to send him the video of Matt’s reaction.

I had no doubt that, somehow, it would end up on BTE.

After I was satisfied with the positioning, we put the finishing touches on the armoire. Nick threaded the lights into place and slipped the power cord for the appliance through the holes and plugged them in. He made sure the switch worked for the lights and turned them off again. I grinned, thinking about the last time we’d planned a surprise for Matt. I took one last look at his gift, feeling a wave of nostalgia as I remembered the theme of that particular party.

_Matt_

I yawned as I plopped down at the breakfast table. Mattie and Nicole were poised on either side of Y/N, the three of them grinning in that way that made me feel like the luckiest man alive. _My beautiful girls_ , I thought as Nick loped in with Lee on his hip. _And my little man._

“Morning,” my brother said, grinning lopsidedly. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks, man,” I replied as he passed by. Lee wriggled and my brother settled him in my lap. I watched as Nick crossed the kitchen and wrapped our wife in a warm hug. He whispered something to her, and she beamed with excitement.

Mattie and Nicole carried plates to the table while Y/N brought over a platter piled high with her wonderfully oversized cranberry apple cinnamon muffins. My mouth watered as soon as I saw them. She knew they were my favorite. The moment she sat the platter on the table, she pressed her fist against her spine. Lee wriggled out of my lap and climbed up on one of the bench seats.

“Aw, Momma,” I said, getting slowly to my feet and drawing her close. I replaced her fist with my fingers, kneading the sore spot firmly. “You didn’t have to do all this—not now.”

She smiled and leaned up to give me a soft kiss. It felt like my whole body went hot and cold at once. She’d always had that effect on me. Since the moment we’d met.

After a moment, she rested against my chest as I worked at the knot at the base of her spine. She turned to press her cheek against my shoulder and mumbled. “Nick, will you take that box of muffins up to Brandon?”

My brother snapped to attention, giving her a playful salute. She smiled, and everything was right with the world. He slipped on his shoes and grabbed the box. “C’mon guys,” he said, “you can go say hello to Uncle Brandon.”

It took a moment before the four of them were out the back door. There was a path between our houses and Brandon’s that had been worn up the side of the hill after all of our visits back and forth.

“Shoot,” Y/N said grumpily. “I forgot to get coffee. Matt, would you go see if there’s any left in your kitchen?”

I kissed the tip of her nose. “Of course, lovely wife.” I caught sight of her blushing as I drifted out the back door of Nick’s place and across the patio. The sun was just coming up over the eastern mountains, turning the sky a perfect orange red.

I pushed the door of my place open and flipped on the kitchen light. “Surprise!”

Nick and the kids were standing on either side of a cabinet I’d never seen before. They had birthday hats on, and the kids had small, wrapped presents in their hands. I didn’t have to turn around to know Y/N had come in behind me.

The cabinet was rustic and worn looking with two doors on top and a set of drawers on the bottom. Each of the drawers had a chalkboard oval on it, written over in chalkboard paint in my wife’s perfect handwriting. The doors were painted over as well—the left with a beautifully stylized _But_ and the right with a matching _First_ —with little images painted along the edges of the panels. When I got closer, I thought I recognized them.

“Open it up,” Y/N said from behind me. I glanced back to see her with her phone pointed right at me. She was beaming. So was Nick.

I felt the corners of my mouth tip upward in my own smile as I closed the space between me and the cabinet. Once I was close enough, I recognized the images as coffee beans. I grabbed the brass handles and pulled, swinging both doors open. The first thing I saw was the back wall of the cabinet. It had a white wooden cutout of the word _coffee_ tacked up. Beneath it was what looked like repurposed coat hooks, each of them with a mug hanging from it. A brand-new Keurig sat on side of a shelf. A pod rack and Mason jars with sugar and spoons sat on and beneath it. A string of white lights hung from the top, twinkling.

“You!” I whirled on my wife, a huge smile spreading over my face. She sat her phone on the table just before I swept her up into my arms. “You did this?”

She grinned and looked over my shoulder. “Nick, too. We spent all week on it.”

“I don’t deserve you two,” I whispered, looking between the two of them. They smiled back, and Nick pushed the kids forward to give me their presents.


	3. Part 3: Nick's Birthday

Part III

_(GIF owned by utherlightbringer on Tumblr)_

High summer in Southern California was one of my favorite times of the year. The days were long, the pool sparkled in the sun, and Matt and Nick insisted on taking a week off and taking the entire family to Oahu for vacation. We’d end up coming back just in time to celebrate with the rest of the family. It had been a wonderful surprise when our firstborn came early, just two days before Nick’s birthday. As she’d gotten older, we’d taken to celebrating the occasions together.

Nick loved it, living every single year for his birthday celebration with Mattie.

We’d been home for barely a day when my eldest daughter caught me in the kitchen. It was early—too early for anyone else to be awake—but I had become a morning person in the years I’d been with Matt and Nick. I’d practically trained myself to be awake at all hours so I could speak to them when they were away.

“Morning, Mama,” Mattie said with a grin. She grabbed a mug and poured herself a cup of coffee, adding creamer and milk and half a dozen things that she’d picked up from Matt, before folding herself into the Lotus position on the bench beside me. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy looped ponytail high toward the crown of her head, little whisps of it gathering around her face. Her blue eyes were bright, alert. Just like when she was a baby.

“Morning, Tea,” I replied. “What are you doing up so early?”

She stared into her coffee concoction, and for a moment I couldn’t help but marvel in how beautiful she’d become. She was lithe and graceful, strong like Matt but quick and athletic like Nick. Her heart burned to be in the ring. Mattie lived and breathed wrestling, just like her fathers. She was just like them in every wonderful way.

“What’s on your mind, sweetheart?” I asked, sweeping my hand along her cheek, and tucking hair behind her ear.

“I have a question… about my birthday.” Her fingers tightened around her cup. I watched her swallow hard. _God_ , I thought, _she acts just like them_. “About my… about a present.”

I rolled my eyes. “What else do you want? Dad bought you a laptop, a new phone, and ten sets of ring gear. Papa bought you a new car.”

Mattie leaned her head against my shoulder. “I want something from you.”

_Matt_

I stretched, feeling the soreness start to sink into my back. Sweat and heat turned my hair into frizz as I walked to the side of the basketball court. The boys laughed and continued playing HORSE without me. Lee was almost fourteen and as tall as I was. Just as when he was a baby, he was easy smiles, laughs, and charm. RJ had come out of his shell as he’d grown. At twelve, he had become more comfortable with himself and the world, even though he was still quiet and walked to the beat of his own drum. Baby Ty wasn’t a baby anymore. He was ten and adventurous, curious, and energetic. In some ways, he was the easiest of our kids. But he held his own against his older brothers and sisters.

“Are your parents coming tomorrow?” Y/N asked as she leaned over the railing above me. I caught the bottle of water that she dropped and took a swig.

“Yeah, at seven. They wanted to give us some time to celebrate alone,” I replied, grinning. As I thought about what was happening later, I felt my smile falter. “Mattie’s eighteen. Jesus, where did the time go?”

My wife gave a nostalgic sigh. “Remember when she was first born? You panicked every time she got near _anything_ that wasn’t squishy. And Nick would play peek-a-boo with her for hours.”

I glanced up just in time to see Y/N swipe at her eyes. Without a second thought, I jumped and caught the edge of the concrete above me. Ignoring the pain in my spine, I pulled myself up, swinging to catch the wrought iron of the railing. A moment later, I climbed over and pulled my wife into my arms.

“Hey,” I murmured, drawing her closer. My lips ghosted over her hair. “We did good with her, Mama. She’s a good kid—smart and kind. Just like _you_.”

She sank against me, wrapping her arms around my waist. “It’s not that… she’s asked for something else for her birthday. Something from me.”

I leaned back to look into her eyes. They were stormy, conflicted. “What did she ask for?”

_Nick_

I double checked that I’d wrapped all of Mattie’s presents and that Brandon was going to bring down the car later that evening. Denise had made an Elite bow to put on the hood. I had a sudden flash of memory—me in the passenger seat, Matt in the back, teaching Mattie how to drive. She’d gotten so big so fast. Every time I looked at her, I couldn’t help but see Y/N in her. I was so proud of the young woman she’d become.

Y/N was in the kitchen setting up everything for the dinner that was on the way. She’d ordered a complete spread of our favorite things from Cracker Barrel and a shared cake from the bakery that one of the parents from Mattie’s co-op owned. We’d have some time together before my parents showed up to celebrate with us.

Balancing my daughter’s gifts, I slipped into the living room and dropped them carefully on the coffee table. Oreo looked up at the noise, ears flicking, but quickly plopped back onto the floor. I leaned down to scratch behind his ears. “Guard these, boy,” I said playfully.

When I looked up, Y/N was standing at the kitchen counter, tucking her hair back behind her ears. She was more beautiful now than she’d been that day in the airport when we’d met. I loved her so much it hurt, loved her from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet, more today than yesterday, more tomorrow than today. Not a day passed that I didn’t thank my lucky stars that she was mine.

She glanced at me, something about the set of her mouth making me think she was worried. I watched as she flicked a faint smile at me just as the doorbell rang. “I’ve got it,” I called.

***

I nipped at my bottom lip as I stared out the kitchen window at my husbands and children out in the pool. Matt raced Mattie from one end to the other, getting thoroughly trounced each time. He certainly didn’t need to give her a head start anymore. Nicole sat on the edge with her feet dangling in the water, kicking them back and forth around Ty as he held his breath. Lee did backflips off the diving board while RJ scored him like an Olympic judge. For the moment, they were all peaceful and happy.

Matt looked up as he pulled himself onto the edge of the pool. His dark eyes met mine, and a genuine, sweet smile danced over his face. A moment later, he pulled Mattie out of the water and pointed her toward Matt’s house. It didn’t take long for the rest of the family to follow along behind. They slipped inside to change clothes before coming in to eat.

My heart skipped a beat as they crowded into Nick’s kitchen, grabbing plates and lining up along the counter. Nick and Mattie were pushed to the front of the line, then bickered with one another over who would go first. In the end, they went together, fixing each other’s food. Nick draped his arm around her shoulder as they plopped down together at the table. One by one, the table filled up, laughter spilling through the house as the boys teased each other and then ganged up on Mattie. More than once, they brought Cassidy into the conversation, making my eldest daughter turn pink.

It seemed like no time passed at all and we were gathered in the living room, Oreo curled up in RJ’s lap. Wrapping paper lay in a heap on the corner of the sofa. A brand new Sorento sat in the driveway, a paint splattered Elite bow on the hood. Mattie moved to sit at the edge of the sofa, her hands clasped together as she looked at Matt and Nick. I wanted to reach out for her, but I knew that she had to do this on her own.

She grabbed a card from the table and took a deep breath. I watched her face go alternately pale and crimson as she held out the card with a shaking hand. “Happy birthday, Dad,” Mattie said.

Matt moved to sit next to me, his fingers latching with mine. He leaned against my shoulder.

_Nick_

I couldn’t figure out why Mattie looked so nervous. She kept glancing over at Y/N, almost as if she were asking for permission. My wife smiled, giving her an encouraging nod. My brother was settled in beside our wife in a way that reminded me of their united front when we’d been rebuilding our family all those years ago.

My finger slipped under the flap and tore the envelope open. Inside was a heavy white card along with a folded piece of paper. I smiled as I read the front— _No matter how old she may be sometimes a GIRL just needs her DAD_. My eyes burned as I tried not to cry. The inside was filled with a long letter in my daughter’s perfect swirling writing. I clenched my jaw, clearing my throat as I fought a losing battle.

“Tea,” I said at last, looking at my first born through blurry eyes. “This is the best gift.”

Mattie looked back to her mother before she said anything else. For a moment, the two of them looked at one another. I smiled sideways, thinking how they looked exactly like Y/N said Matt and I did. They had something brewing between them.

“There’s more,” Mattie said, standing up and moving to stand in front of me. She picked the paper up from my lap and unfolded it. “Mama gave it to me this morning.”

I felt my brow furrow as I took the paper from her hand. It took a moment for me to make any sense of it. At first, it looked like a bunch of useless numbers and letters across the page. I looked up, confused. From the corner of my eye, I saw Matt squeeze Y/N’s hand. My brother’s brown eyes were warm and happy. My wife, on the other hand, looked as if she was going to be sick.

“Read it, Dad,” Mattie said, stepping closer and pointing her finger to a paragraph of text about halfway down the page. “This part here.”

Her finger trembled. I took her hand as I focused on the words. _Based on our analysis and the biomedical evaluation of the results, it is found that Mr. Nicholas Jackson is the biological father of Mattea Jackson with a statistical certainty of 99.99%._ A moment later, I couldn’t see the text or anything else. Tears poured down my face as I tugged Mattie into a hug.

She threw her arms around my neck, hugging me just as tightly as I did her. “Happy birthday, Dad,” she whispered into my ear.

I pressed a kiss to her cheek and sniffed. “Happy birthday, my love.” _My baby girl._

Matt caught my eye as he handed tissues to Y/N. He smiled just as proudly as he had the day Mattie came into our lives. Then I knew what we’d always said was true.

It didn’t matter who was her father, she was still _our_ daughter.


End file.
